July 25, 2006

I decided that I would not go over to Travis' house on thursday night because that was the only time I would get to meet my brother's girlfriend while she was visiting from Portland before she left to go back home. I picked up Jessica and we headed to the Cactus Rose. We were following directions to meet some of her friends from work and they were not not even close. We spent 15-20 minutes driving around the area before we found it. Needless to say I was getting pretty angry by the time we got there. I calmed myself down and tried to be friendly, but most of the table conversation revolved around banking and the like, so I did not have much to contribute. Everyone seemed nice though. After talking with my brother, Jesse and Dave came to where we were for a few minutes before we left to go to Dewey's Pizza.

Jesse was very nice and good looking and we had a good time eating pizza and getting to know each other. Dave was taking her on a romantic trip to an observatory, so we left around 9. Jessica was worried that my parents would like Jesse better than her. During the dinner, Jessica was trying to explain to Jesse how to deal with my father and giving advice, so I hope that she wasn't too jealous of Jesse. She was worried that my dad would like her more because she Jesse had studied up on guns to impress him. We went to bed, because she had to be up for work and I had to be at the golf course by 10am.

I got to the golf course on time with my bottle of Captain Morgan and got a bucket of balls. I hadn't seen most of these guys in a long time. We had a lot of fun drinking and golfing, and surprisingly I did not play that bad even though I had not picked up a club in over two years. I was paired up with Troyer, Stein and Jed. We had a lot of catching up to do. We then left to go to the hotel to change before we left to go to the rehearsal. This turned out to be quite boring and the only thing that got me through it was thinking about the delicious food and drinks we were going to have at the rehearsal dinner. Jessica called while we were at the dinner and I ordered her some food. She was worried about not getting there soon enough because she had to work until 6, but she arrived before the food came out. I introduced her to everyone and we had a really good time. We went back to the hotel and had some fantastic sex, followed by a good night at BW3s (it was the only bar within walking distance).

Jessica clicked almost immediately with my friends and we spent the night bullshitting and taking shots. We also got everybody hooked on our favorite bar game, Photo Hunt. It is a remarkable game that can foster friendship and drunken shenanigans. She was really excited that she got all of my friends into it. At one point, Stein and Troyer got a local thinking that they were both millionaires and that I was their security guard. The next day we woke up and went to the waffle house for breakfast. Jessica then left to go get stuff to wear to the wedding while I got ready for pictures and the whole wedding day.

Luckily my tuxedo fit (I had lost about 10-15 lbs. since I had been fitted) and we left to go to get our pictures. My bottle of Peppermint Schnapps helped the day go by smoothly. I had a lot of fun hanging out and taking pictures. I even saw a picture in the photography studio of a guy that I used to play football with, Fitz. It was pretty ironic. Since one of the buses that was supposed to take us to the church did not have air conditioning, we all had to pile into one. This meant that Tyler had to ride shotgun so that he did not see Kate before the wedding. We hung out and finished my bottle of Schnapps before the wedding. It went off without a hitch...even our stupid little football play we did to throw a nerf football with the rings in them to Tyler went fine. The pastor really pissed me off when he was talking about how there are a lot of people here who are not spiritual and that the only reason they are here is because Tyler and Kate are getting married. Who cares? I don't go to church because I don't believe in God, but I do believe in people, especially when they are in love and want to spend the rest of their lives together. We took some more pictures, then left to go to the reception. I spent a lot of time to and from the church talking with the bride's father. Needless to say, he really enjoyed me.

At the reception, I started off taking it easy on the drinks, but hit up dad for some cash for the liqour. Jessica got to meet a lot of people that were very important to me in high school, and was well received by everyone. It is kind of a weird feeling, and I don't want to sound pompous or anything, but there are a lot of people that really love me and consider me family. It is almost like being a celebrity, but that sort of makes it sound arrogant, which I don't want. It is hard to explain, but I think that Jessica got the idea. I hear it all the time from my parents and friends,

"Wow, I can't believe they like you that much. All they kep talking about was how much they liked you and how nice you were."

We did a lot of dancing at the reception. Tyler even called all of us groomsmen over to the bar about 4 times to chug beers with him. It was really fun and not really like Tyler to be all about the drinking. We even chugged a beer with the bride. At one point, my dad got up to dance with my mom, and before he got there, Troyer started dancing with her. My dad stopped and said "He's dancing with my wife." I thought it was really funny and told him to go dance with her then. I danced with mom a lot and Jessica did some dancing with Dad. She got upset when Dad said that it didn't really matter what he thought about her, it was only about what I felt. She took it as meaning that he didn't like her, but she just needs to know how my dad operates sometimes. We got a really good picture of the four of us before we left.

On the bus ride back from the reception, Jessica was trying to give me a handjob in the backseat! It was funny. We decided that we would change and meet everybody back outside and go to the bar. When Jessica and I walked outside, I saw someone standing behind a column wearing a robe. It was my dad! He said that he was waiting for Nick's parents to come out so that he could flash them. Luckily, he had clothes on underneath, but Nick's parents didn't come out for about 15 minutes. During this time, everybody was coming back from the wedding and got to see my drunken father walking around in a robe. It was hilarious. We went to the bar and had some food and drinks. It was nice and relaxing to hang out with my friends and their parents.

The next day we had brunch at the bride's parent's house and I spent a few hours with Jessica at her apartment before I left to go back to Dayton to do a little schoolwork. I really miss her and I know that she misses me. She brought up getting married a few times over the weekend, and I have told her before that I want to marry her, just not for a year or two. I thought that we would live together after I finish grad school, but she wants a commitment before that...meaning an engagement. I was planning on asking her to marry me about a year after we started living together, so I don't know what to do. I would like to live with her and spend the rest of my life with her, but I would like to wait a little longer, to the point where I have a good job and am settled down before we get married. I hope she understand, and I do realize that we have plenty of time to get things figured out. Needless to say, it was a fantastic weekend. I can't wait for more of these. My brother has already invited me to a wedding of one of his friends from college that he is in. He told me I am allowed to get as crazy as I want to. I definitely look forward to this.